October rides: put a little color into it.

Hang in, there, N.Y. We've all taken a spill and, as we all know, I'm still doing it. :) Hope you recover, soon.

One of the things that you might check on the shifting is the derailleur. With MTB crashes, bending a derailleur arm is very common occurrence and that will give you fits with the shifting. Easy enough fix by bending it back. On the other hand, if you actually damaged the brifter on a road bike, that gets very pricey. Very expensive part on a road bike. Hope it isn't that.

Light snow, as I write this, this morning. Ugh! Oh, I'll still go out with a fat bike on the trails so Star and I can get some exercise, but not a great day for biking. Oh, well, Florida this is not and I know it.

Thanks ladies. All in all it could have been worse. There is a bit of swelling today on the back (not palm side) of my wrist, but it feels better today than last night. My elbow is a bit puffy too. I probably could test ride the new bike today but it would be better not to.

I realized when cleaning the cut on my knee that I landed on a scar, a spot I have cut twice before. The first time I was 4 or 5, walking my bike (I think with training wheels still) and somehow managed to trip and fall. My knee hit a small sharp rock, which hurt a lot and left the scar. Then back in 2003 I was riding my then-new road bike on a paved trail through some woods. There were puddles from recent rain. I went through a muddy curve too fast and fell, right on that scar. So yesterday was my third time cutting the same spot. Third time's a charm?

I learned several lessons yesterday. First, it you go off the edge of the road, keep going straight and stop rather than trying to ride back onto the pavement. Two, pay more attention when chatting while cycling!! (c) Keep an ace bandage in your bike bag along with the regular and large Band-Aids.

For once I did the ride I set out to do to Bolton Farms, although we did make it a bit shorter and took an alternative a friend had told me about. I had been on the road, going the other way. It was quite lovely, and a downhill. It was cool when we started, about 49. I was dressed correctly, and because we had a headwind on the way there, and it was mostly cloudy, I did not get overheated. At one point, I took my head cover off, but then, we went down that hill and I was cold, but I knew we were almost at our stop. This ride has a lot of climbing. The first climb is a hill I often gauge my fitness on, but I've only climbed it 2-3 times this season. It felt pretty hard... as we turned on to this climb, first we passed woman struggling to get up a little rise before the turn. She was zig zagging so we had to call out. DH suggested a lower gear, but she was not responsive. Then, on the first part of the climb, we saw a guy walking. He had a nice bike and looked experienced, and was not broken down. When we go to the top, his wife was waiting. Then, as we were deciding if we were really going to do the intended ride, we stopped at our turn. The struggling woman rode by us, on the same road, also a difficult 8-10% climb. The husband and wife also passed us. We decided to go for it, and we passed the struggler, and the guy got off his bike again, to walk. We caught the woman, who told us he was doing chemo, and insisted on doing a 30 mile hilly ride. Perhaps not a good choice. We went ahead and got onto the new part of the ride; there were cars parked all along the road before the farm market where the festival was, so we pulled in the lot and then walked our bikes to the patio. Mostly vendors giving samples of junk food and people buying apples and cider donuts. There was a good band playing, so we went inside and bought a sandwich to share. We ate quickly, as we felt cold, and then quickly warmed up on the 4 mile climb into Harvard Centre. As we turned by the Harvard General Store, we saw our friend Jack, pulling in, with some riders he was leading. We stopped for a second to say hi, and then up the last major climb to a big downhill. At this point we repeated about a mile of the beginning of the ride, but we stopped to take pictures. Finally, after another teeny hill, we got back to what I call my favorite roads in our old town.
The ride ended up being 35.3 miles. My knee/leg was hurting and then my other knee started hurting. I was going to do a Meet Up ride on Wednesday, but it's 19 miles with 1,100 ft of hard climbs, so I don't think I should annoy my injury even more. If the ride was longer, I might, but I'm afraid to make it worse and to be dropped by new people, even though the stated average is in my range. I still might ride with my regular group.
Glad I went, glad I didn't do 50, and happy with the cooler weather. The colors are not anywhere near peak, seems a bit late this year.

I picked up the new bike!

I put two bottle cages on along with the pedals while I was the bike shop parking lot. The only difficulty was opening the tube of Park Tools grease -- I didn't have scissors to cut the tip open. But I had told the folks working in the shop that I was going to attempt my first pedal installation and would be back if I ran into problems. So while I was putting on the bottle cages one of them came out to see how I was doing. He took the tube of grease inside and opened it for me.

I rode in circles around the parking lot a few times. I definitely need a fitting. The reach to the handlebars is ok but the reach to the hoods is too long. The hoods are huge! I think they can be adjusted, though.

Before I left I had them show me how to remove the wheels and got a spacer for the disc brakes for when I have to remove a wheel. They said a piece of cardboard would work too, as long as it is roughly as thick as the rotor. Good to know.

I maxed out on posting photos here a long time ago -- will have to figure out how to delete some so I can upload photos of the new bike.

Congrats on the new bike, N.Y. Always fun getting a new bike tuned and fitted.

Woke up to a skiff of icy snow on the ground, this morning. Most of the leaves are down on the ground, now, so spent most of yesterday in the rain and falling snow clearing the trails of the heavy leaf layer. It's mostly a matter of safety, since the leaves hide some trail obstacles that can easily be avoided when you can see them. Clean trails also make for faster riding trails. I did finish up with some trail riding on the fat bike, of course. Can't go a day without some riding, right? :)

Looks like our fall season is going to be about as short as our spring season we had, this year. Some of my trails behind the house.
https://i.postimg.cc/pr3yM7BS/P1100192.jpg

Despite the cold, did a lot of trail improvement work on a rough section. Finished up and just as I stepped back into the house, got a call from the bike shop that my gears for the Nature Boy were in. Loaded up the bike and they changed out the gearing while I waited. They gave me a lesson on how to change a chain ring in front and a single speed cog in the back, plus they sold me the two tools to do the job. Love these guys.

Went right home and did 16.5 miles on the Nature Boy, now with lower and more comfortable gearing. Turned the Nature Boy from a 15.5 mph bike at my max spin to 13.2 mph bike at my max spin. Doesn't sound like much of a difference, but it really is significant. It means that while I am a bit slower on the flats, I can do most of my climbing without having to stand on the pedals. Then, too, today I had to deal with strong winds and the lower gearing was much appreciated. Very pleased with my decision. I think my knees are pleased, too.

Did I mention that temps were only in the 30s during my ride? Still some colors on the trees and did have some sunshine, so despite the cold, it was a beautiful ride.

Here's a very retro add on I found at the bike shop. It's a Nantucket bike basket. I love it. It doesn't flop around like a nylon bag and the rigid construction with a big wide open top make finding items MUCH easier. Quality construction. Okay, not modern, high tech, but then, I'm not too modern and high tech, either. Wouldn't be riding steel single speed bikes if I was.

https://i.postimg.cc/mk9SBZV7/P1100194.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/vHRzX9Hh/P1100196.jpg

I like that basket, NWG. I saw some like that at Belmont Wheelworks, when I bought the Ariel.
No riding today or yesterday. Bootcamp kicked my azz yesterday, but in a good way. However, my leg/knee started hurting worse from my hiking fall, mostly I think from the 2,000 ft of climbing I did on Sunday. I iced my leg 3 times yesterday and once this morning. It was such a beautiful fall day today, DH and I went on a 2.5 mile walk when we got home. My knee/leg feels sore, but it's not acute pain. I iced it again when I got back and I plan to do a 40 mile ride tomorrow. I did bag out of the 18n mile 1,300 ft of climbing ride, but I will ride with my usual group, right around here. It starts about 4 miles from my house the ride is 32 miles, so if I can stop myself from turning right onto my street when we ride by near the end, I should end up with 40. I have nothing else to do and I should socialize at lunch with these people.

Take care of that knee, girl. I worry a lot about blowing out a knee with all my single speed riding, now. A bad knee could really put an end to my biking. Do enjoy the fall weather, though. Get out and ride while you can.

Very nice day for us. Temps got up into the upper 40s and had some nice sunshine. Really nice day. Very welcome change from what we've been having for fall weather. Did our usual neighborhood roads ride of about 6 miles, me on the Nature Boy, now with more knee friendly gearing. Got home and traded the Nature Boy for the Log Lady with its trail friendly gearing and did 6 wonderful miles of laps and just noodling around for fun on my trails. Star loved it, too.

It is not directly on my knee, so I am not overly concerned. It is right underneath, and also on the smallish bruise on the right side. I also have to consider I had that bike crash about 8 weeks ago, pretty much in the same spot, plus another one in June 2017. Nothing that required medical intervention, but, still repetitive stress.It basically feels bruised. Been cautious, but I think it just needs time.

OK, I did the ride, at least most of it... I knew dressing for a temperature starting at 40 would be hard, because it would be going up to around 52-55. Though it was partly cloudy when I left to ride the 4 miles to the start, it became sunny. My mid layer (jersey) was basically too heavy... I was able to unzip my jacket and jersey and basically ended up taking both the heavy and light head cover off, and taking off my gloves in the middle of the ride and putting the liners I had used for the trip to the start on as gloves. I did wear my winter cycling shoes and that was fine.
There were about 15-20 people. Some I like, others, just weird. The leader was the woman whose DH got hit and killed by a driver a few years ago (on his way to the dentist). They are/were lovely people, but she's sometimes edgy when riding. I can't explain it. She can sustain a faster pace than me on flats for a longer period, but I can drop her in a minute on a climb. So, I alternately felt sweaty and my legs were burning from trying to stay with the front group. This ride was really just on all of the typical roads I ride on, especially the ones in Acton, Stow, and Boxboro, and back to Concord. However, near the end, where I had told her I was going to peel off and head home, she took a wrong turn (how can you do that with GPS?). It wasn't a big deal wrong turn, but it ended up in a spot where she was going to lead the group to make a left onto a busy road with a small rise and poor sightlines. I would never do that. Since I was already feeling tired from being overheated, I decided to part ways there and make a right on the busy road and then a left, which is a parallel street to the one they were heading for. I rarely take this way home, because it is really hilly, with 3 climbs, the first one the worst. It's also narrower than the other street, which is my go to way out of my area. But, I decided I'd get home quicker, although with less miles, and I could go as slow as I wanted, with no peer pressure!
I was very glad to get home. My total was 29 miles, not the 36 I thought I would have, but it's more than I would have done alone.

Impressive miles, again, Crankin. When I read about folks, here, doing all these group rides I can't help but wonder how I could possibly do those. Been decades since I've done a group ride. Have almost zilch confidence that I could manage such a thing, now. I doubt I could keep pace.

Did my usual hour plus on my trails, this morning, but temps only in the 30s, so pretty chilly. Then took the Krampus in for a tubeless conversion. All my other bikes are tubeless, now, and I can feel the difference. The Krampus has a harsher ride compared to my tubeless setup bikes. Going tubeless does make for a smoother ride. It's something I've noticed on every bike that I've had converted from tube to tubeless.

While at the bike shop, saw something you don't see except up in the north country. Our bike shop was working on a couple of wheeled sled dog sleds for folks that run and race sled dogs in the winter. The wheeled sleds allow them to train with their dogs in the summer months. Bet you don't see the in Florida! :)

I know people who can (and do) get lost despite having GPS.

I went for the new bike fitting last night, after looking at it next to the old Madone WSD and deciding I probably needed to switch it for a smaller size (52). So the first thing I said to the fitter was that I was worried that the frame was just too big and the reach was too long to be fixed with a shorter stem.

I brought the Madone with me, and he started by putting the new saddle on the new bike based on measurements from the Madone. Then he compared some measurements between the two bikes (end of saddle to different points on the handlebar) and felt that the 54 would be okay. I rode it on the indoor trainer while he took some video and used some kind of software to measure a few angles. If you draw a line up the side of your back to the shoulder and then down to the hand, the angle should be between 85 and 90 degrees, and I was at 88. So we agreed that I would go out for a test ride and see how things felt. If necessary the next step would be to try an 80mm stem (down from the 90mm stem that came on the bike). And if I really don't feel right after additional adjustments, I can still turn in the bike and get the smaller frame.

We also adjusted the shift/brake levers. At the farthest out position I could barely reach them in the drops, but now they are close enough, I think. I might even be able to move them back out a bit. It looks like an easy adjustment to make.

BTW one big reason I decided the new bike would be a useful investment was that it is supposed to hold 4 water bottles -- three in the triangle and one more on the front of the down tube. There is a video on the Trek website showing the bike with 4 water bottles. Unfortunately it turns out that this is only true for frames that are 56 or larger. If you scroll down to the Q and A's, they admit that 54 and smaller can only fit the usual two bottles in the triangle. There are holes for a third cage on my bike but not enough room to fit the top bottle under the top tube. I might be able to squeeze it in but wouldn't be able to take out a bottle and drink while riding. It really amazes me that they would make a point of showing this feature on the video when it only applies for tall people. It's insulting.

Tonight I am going out to ride, but on the old bike. My wrist is much better after the crash on Saturday but still not 100%, and the route is too hilly for a first ride on flat pedals. And I just prefer to do the shakedown on a new bike in daylight and closer to the bike shop in case anything needs adjusting. So tonight, for old time's sake, I will ride the Madone.

I think it's a good idea to do the test ride under perfect conditions, too. I am the type of person that feels every little change, so I need to minimize those I can control! However, my idea of the perfect test ride in the adjacent neighborhood, that has lots of streets that are loops, with enough rollers to use the gears backfired when it started torrentially raining after a mile! The forecast said it wasn't supposed to rain for 45 minutes-hour and there was nothing on the radar. It ended up being quite funny and it convinced me the bike was perfect, as it did great under those conditions.
Yeah, the bottle thing. My Ariel is so small that I can only fit one cage. However the trunk bag I bought has another holder, which I use for coffee when I ride to work. If I ever go on a long ride with that bike, I will use the trunk bag.
I get that some people get mixed up using GPS (DH is one), but she was snarky to me when I made the suggestion to go turn around and take the intended route. We are talking like 1/4 of a mile back track. To me, it shows lack of preparation. If I am leading a new route, I pre-ride it. I make sure there are no road closures or other funky things. Even the meeting place was a fail; the town had had half of the parking lot closed for a few weeks and the road is all stripped of pavement, as they put new pipes in. Many of the people had to pay for parking or park far away because of this (there was another faster group, so maybe a total of 30 people). I know this because I live in town, but the leader does not. Once you pre-ride a route, there's less of a chance of making the kind of mistake she made. I pretty much left the ride at that point, because of the way she spoke to me and acted. She knows that I live in the area, I am a ride leader for a different group, and given the way her husband died, she should be thinking about minimizing risk.

I tend to be hyper sensitive to adjustments on my bikes, too. Maybe it's a gal thing. Who knows? Since I ride so many different bikes, though, I'm careful not to do any adjustments, right away, when switching to another bike. I like to get some miles in on a new bike to get to know the bike, but, yeah, then the adjustments start. I also do my test rides on familiar routes and average weather conditions for the sake of comparisons with the other bikes. Sounds like you've got some expert fitting help, there, N.Y.. Good for you.

Crankin', hard to understand why that group leader didn't do any scouting, either. If she knew you live in the area, she could have at least called you.I've been thinking about a GPS for a long time, now, but I know all the roads in my area, so I don't really need one, plus keeping things simple and uncomplicated is more my style. Tell you what, though, if I was back in Chicago or other big city area, I would darn sure have a GPS. My sense of direction is simply horrid. Got lost many times when I lived there. I'd also have a GPS if we were like Emily and constantly biking in new areas. For now, though, no need for a GPS.

Gorgeous day shaping up, but, unfortunately, other things on the schedule, so won't be able to do a lot of biking. Will get out and do some, though. Have snow showers coming over the weekend.

All day rain and drizzle, yesterday, but warm enough to be comfortable, at least. Did 16 miles in the rain. 14 miles were on the Nature Boy on local roads, purposely selecting some challenging hills to make it a good workout. Finished with 2 miles on my soggy trails, mostly to give Star a good workout.

Woke up to high winds and snow, this morning. Third time it's snowed, this month. What happened to autumn? I am not ready for this. Only about an inch on the ground, so spent the day blowing the snow and leaf litter of the trails, but took me most of the day to get it done. Too tired and cold to ride when I was done. The trails will dry out, quickly, though, and with more seasonable weather on the way, next week, should be able to dome riding than trail work. I hope.

I didn't ride at all this weekend. Yesterday, there was a small window of sun and not so windy; we walked RT 4.1 miles to a celebration in the village center. Not so much going on, but a good, brisk walk. Today, we had DGD. Had planned to go all over town in the trailer, but with 45 degrees and winds gusting to 35, it felt like January! I ended up doing hill intervals on the treadmill (walking) for 20 minutes, and then we took her to the Old North Bridge, where we made her walk a mile and recreate some family history by sitting on a big tree. Too bad the one we had our kids climb up is cordoned off and dying. Absolutely no color in the trees here. Alarming. No global warming, of course.

Nice ride, yesterday. Finally, no rain, at least, but quite cold with temps the 30s. Did 12 miles on pavement around the neighborhood on the Gunnar. Not that I need ANY excuse to ride this fabulous single speed, but I figured the wider tires would be safer, since a lot of the roads have heavy leaf cover and after Saturday's storm, a lot of it was still wet and even icy. Finished the day with 4 miles of trail riding with Star and even managed to do more trail maintenance work. All in all, very productive day.

A slight skim of ice along the lake shore, this morning. Our leaves are all down, now. Looking like late fall, even though it's still a bit early. Time to get the fat bikes set up for snow riding. I think it's going to be an early winter.

I'm getting concerned that my riding is going to be limited by weather and my schedule for at least 2 weeks. It's gone from August to early December in about 10 days in terms of temperature, which would be OK, without the high winds and rain. I think I may be able to ride Wednesday, but it will be on my own. Friday, I have a friend who moved to the Cape staying over, and she won't won't ride at 46 degrees, which is the predicted temperature for the day... we will hike. Torrential rains both weekend days. Next week doesn't look much better and my birthday weekend in western MA may not include any riding, either, for the first time I can remember since I've been riding.

I do understand about trying to motivate yourself to ride when the weather takes a turn for the worse after decent riding weather. Even crazy old "ride in any weather" me finds it tough to do. I will say, though, that as long as I dressed, appropriately, once I'm actually out there in the cold and rain and even snow, I'm usually glad I made the effort. Also helps that I have a long history of riding in bad weather, so bad weather doesn't intimidate me as much as it does for some others. Even so, sometimes when I'm out there riding in rough weather, can't help but think I must be a little crazy. Guess it's part of that old traditional notion that bicycles are for riding in nice weather, only. Hard to overcome that idea, at times. Anyway, I do understand about trying to get out and ride in yucky weather. As always, do what you think is best for your riding. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Just because I'm a little crazy, doesn't mean everyone else has to be. :)

Speaking of the weather, it was gorgeous, here, yesterday. Naturally, yesterday just happened to be a day when we had to run a bunch of errands, too. Oh, well. I did get out and ride, late afternoon, though, and managed 4 miles of trail work on the Log Lady. Riding my skinnier tire MTB is my reward for keeping my trails clean, but the trails must still be dry enough. Love the fat bikes and the plus bikes, but riding a bike like the Log Lady brings out the kid in me. Makes me laugh and holler and hoot. Total fun bike on the trail.

So much for the nice weather, though. Forecast is back to cloudy and cold, today.

Update: the sun did manage to peek though the clouds for a bit, even though temps never got out of the 40s. Funny how a little sunshine can improve one's mood. Anyway, did manage a good, strenuous 21.4 miles of pavement with mostly hills on the Nature Boy. Got home, then managed 2 miles on the trails with one of the fat bikes, mostly to give Star her daily trail run.

Neck still gets stiff and sore after a given number of hours of bicycling. Not painful or anything, just uncomfortable. I suspect that's going to be the status quo for me from now on. An all day ride may be a thing of the past for me, now. Oh, well. At least I'm still in the land of the living and still riding. Not complaining.

I can do cold, and some think I am crazy for that, but I don't feel safe riding in the rain. I do it if I have to. Tomorrow looks pretty good and I have no commitments until 1 PM.
Right now it's becoming very stormy, dark, severe weather alert. Glad I got home in time. They just lifted a tornado warning in SE MA, so it's around.
It's thundering like crazy...

I might be a little crazy about riding in bad weather, but I don't do lightning, tornadoes, blizzards, torrential rains or any of the other weather nasties. In the past, I've had to do some of those by necessity, sometimes stopping to take shelter where I could, but not the sort of experiences I would want to repeat. No way. Still, riding my bike in my commuting days did have advantages in a couple of truly bad weather events in Chicago. The weather had stalled traffic and backed it for many miles, causing people not to get home till late at night. Meanwhile, I just walked my bike around bad spots and made the ride home in almost my average time. Then, too, my bike started every morning and never got stuck in the snow.

Beautiful day shaping up, but, of course, more errands to run in town. Have to get things better co-ordinated. :) Will probably ride, late afternoon.

North Woods, I was channeling you this morning. Forecast was very unpredictable, but with no rain predicted until noon. Yet, it looked cold and raw, so I got out my stuff for spin, which is an hour earlier than I planned to do an outdoor ride. I started feeling wimpy and decided 1) I needed some bad-assery in my life and 2) It was nowhere near my limit for cold temperatures at 44. So I just got in my outdoor riding clothes, put air in my tires and hung out until 9:30. I did one last check of the radar, which showed nothing. I had thought about wearing my rain jacket, but instead, at the last minute, I chose a Gore-Tex winter cycling jacket that I bought from someone on TE. It's very thin, but extremely toasty, and I chose it over my normal winter cycling jacket because although they both really can only be use in real cold and make me overheat unless it's in the mid thirties or below, this one has pit zips and actually, you can zip the whole sleeves off each arm.
Went out my basement door and noticed some water on my Garmin. I didn't think anything of it, maybe drops from a tree or the roof, or spray off of the leaves. Put on my lights, and started off, and just as soon as I turned onto Main St, I knew it was raining. But, I didn't go back, despite it being more like a light rain than a drizzle. The sun was coming out in one direction and there was dark sky in another. I kept going, thinking I would turn back and do a 2 mile loop if it got worse. But, by the time I go to the point of turning, it had slowed, so I went on, deciding to do my shortish early AM route. There's a climb at this point, so I knew I'd be warm. The Gore Tex worked repelling the rain, though my tights felt damp. When I got near the top of the hill, it had started raining more steadily again, so I decided to take a short cut of half a mile and head back, knowing there were ways to extend the route, if the rain stopped. It was never heavy, but by this time I felt both sweaty and damp at the same time. So, I ended up doing 7 miles, one of my shortest rides ever, on the road, except for a commute.
I was out for about 30 minutes, and I felt really good from the fresh air, but the risk of hypothermia did worry me. I was dressed correctly, but did not have my helmet rain cover, just a fleece cap under the helmet. It continued raining and got worse until it finally stopped around 1:30.
I was able to get all of my errands done and meet a friend for lunch at 1, so I feel good I got outside and didn't suffer in the sweaty gym...

Hey, Crankin, way to go, girl! Yeah, the dressing part is always the trickiest for me, too. Have an old Gore-tex bicycling rain jacket, but it ain't what it used to be. Definitely showing its age and it leaks a bit, now. Time to get something new, but they are so darn expensive. The one plus I have going for me is that most of my biking is close to home, so if I start to get wet and chilled, I'm never far from home. In my Chicago days, though, I did have a very close call with hypothermia on a wet and cold day. That taught me a lesson. You can always shed layers if you over-dress, but if you dress too light and things turn nasty, you're in trouble.

We pushed our errands back till late afternoon, instead of running them first and then riding when we get back. Cool this morning, but no wind and lots of sunshine, so our morning ride was quite pleasant. Not a lot of miles, but anymore, I don't worry too much about the miles. I'm more interested in getting a good workout and that's a matter of adding a lot of hills on a ride. Oh, yeah, hills we have. Most are gentle, but some are challenging. Riding single speed also makes hill climbing a good workout, too. Not riding anywhere near the total miles I once did, but, thanks to the single speed riding, I think my leg strength is as good as it's ever been. My wind, too.

Yes, this is why I don't fret about my 7-12 mile rides in the early AM, or in yesterday's case, because of weather. These rides always have 1-2 good hills and frankly, the only flat rides I can do are either across town and back (10 miles), an extension of this that has one hill, but we still call it the "flat ride," and is 18-20 miles, or riding to the bike trail in a longer way.
I woke up at 4 AM, so since I was up, I went to spin class at 5:30. Only one other person was there, I guess they were all up late watching the Red Sox. I am glad they won, but I can't alter my schedule for that! I am meticulously rigid about my sleep, exercise, and nutrition schedule, because if I am not, bad things happen.

Yipee! Got my Krampus back from the shop and those big 29x3 tires are now tubeless. Does it make a difference? You bet it does. The Kramp now rides the way I always hoped it would ride. Much more lively and responsive with those lighter wheels, plus a softer ride with better traction.

... and the single speed addiction continues. Dropped off the Pugs 2 at the same time. Soon to be another single speed for me to ride.

Gray and cloudy and cool all day, yesterday, but at least reasonable for this time of year as far as the 40s temp. Did 13 miles of pavement on the Nature Boy, but cut it short, there, so I could get home and ride the Krampus to see if it was really as big an improvement as I thought it was, now that it's tubeless. The good news is that, oh yeah, I wasn't imagining it. Did 6 miles of trail riding on the Krampus and loved it. May seem contradictory, but on a plus size bike like the Krampus, going tubeless makes for a softer ride (more flex in the tires, no inner tube pushing against it from the inside) AND a faster ride because the greatly reduced wheel weight makes for much better acceleration. That's especially important on a single speed.

May do one final cleanup of my trails, clearing them of all leaves and debris, before the snow covers everything. Up here, of course, that can be any day, now.

Another wet, cold and rainy day, yesterday. Not much better, today, but at least it's not raining. Anyway, did my usual rides on both the pavement and the trails, yesterday. Used a fat bike, on the trails, as I always do when they're wet and soggy. Pretty amazing how little imprint those monster wide tires make in wet dirt and mud.

If the trails are dry enough, today, will go a bit smaller on the tires for trail work with either the Krampus or maybe even the Log Lady with it's 2.25" wide tires. Could really, really, really use some sunshine, though. Would make me feel a lot better, at least.

I did the usual ride I do in the super early AM, but instead at 10:45 AM. It was in the 20s this morning, waited until it would be 35+. Of course, the lovely bright sun went in and it was cloudy and I swear I felt a mist when I started. I wore my heated gloves, why suffer?
Something was off with my clothing. I either needed my wind jacket instead of my winter jacket or a lighter jersey or base layer. I was simultaneously cool and sweaty. Not terribly, and unzipping helped.
Glad I went, but it's embarrassing to be doing such short rides. I am meeting someone for lunch, otherwise I would have gone on a group ride. Feeling a little burned out; this is normal at this time of year, but since I hardly rode any big miles this year, I shouldn't feel this way. I will not look at my total measly mileage until 12/31.

Hey, Crankin, those short rides can add up. Never even hit 30 miles, this month, on a single ride, but by riding every day, I managed to do just over 400 miles for the month. I'm very pleased with that, given that October was mostly lousy for weather. Also, about a third of those 400 miles were the harder to pedal trail miles and all but about 75 miles were on single speeds. I think that doing short rides, every day, is better for me at my age than doing a few really big rides every week. Those big rides tend to wear me out, more, now, and take a lot longer for me to recover.

Of course, I am retired and can ride right outside my back door all I want, so riding every day is doable for me. I know it is not for most folks. I am grateful for what I have. I am blessed.

Yeah, hard to believe that it's November, already, tomorrow.